# Date: February 26, 1904

CHAPTER SIXTH
B.
AGITATION AMONG COMMITTEES FOR THE CONGRESS.
STRUGGLE
WITHIN THE CC BETWEEN THE "CONCILIATORS"
AND THE LENINIST WING FOR PREDOMINANCE
IN THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
FEBRUARY—JULY 1904

In the second half of February, the foreign representative of the CC F. Letnik temporarily departed from Geneva and left his deputy for relations with the editorial board of *Iskra*, P. Lepeshinskii (see *Lenin Miscellany* X, p. 526, document 48). General direction of the work of the foreign section of the CC, including in the sphere of relations with the editorial board of *Iskra*, remained with Lenin. The letter from Lenin printed below was sent to the editorial board under the signature of P. Lepeshinskii.

V. I. LENIN ON BEHALF OF THE FOREIGN
REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CC — TO THE EDITORIAL BOARD
OF *ISKRA*

[February 26, 1904. Geneva.]

The C.C. informs the editorial board of the C.O.** that it regards the order to transfer letters intended for it into the hands of the C.O. as an unlawful and unscrupulous seizure and breach of trust.***

The C.C. also declares that it has already fully assessed comrade Blumenfeld, to whom the sorting of letters has now been entrusted, for his lack of conspiratorial discipline and his readiness for scandals.****

The C.C. will therefore notify all* members of the Party of such a seizure and its inevitable harmful consequences for the cause.

C.C.†

The fact in question here was the subject of rather acute and "diplomatic" correspondence between the editorial board of *Iskra*, the CC Expedition, and the foreign representation of the CC during the course of the last week of February and consisted of the following. The editorial board of *Iskra*, without prior coordination of the question with the CC's representative abroad, issued an order at the Geneva post office that correspondence arriving for all foreign institutions of the Party in Geneva, including for the CC representation and for the CC Expedition, be forwarded directly to the editorial board. The foreign representative of the CC was informed of this by a letter from I. Blumenfeld on behalf of the editorial board of February 22 (Archive of the Lenin Institute, document No. 279). This measure was motivated by the "extreme delays in letters intended for the editorial board and the administration of the League," and by the circumstance "that comrade Bonch-Bruevich is engaged in sorting the mail," to whom the editorial board in passing expressed its distrust. V. Bonch-Bruevich was just at this time appointed head of the CC Expedition and was taking over matters from the previous head Loibovich. On February 24, the editorial board forwarded to V. Bonch-Bruevich the letters it had received from the post office for the Expedition, and one of them was opened by the secretary of the editorial board I. Blumenfeld. This fact of the editorial board's seizure of the CC Expedition's correspondence was protested by V. Bonch-Bruevich in a letter to the foreign representation of the CC of February 25 (Archive of the Lenin Institute, document No. 422).

In the middle of March, the foreign representative of the CC F. Letnik departed for Russia. His deputy for relations with the editorial board of *Iskra* remained P. Lepeshinskii, who immediately had to, as in February in the case of the editorial board's seizure of the CC Expedition's correspondence, come forward with similar official declarations against the editorial board's seizure of materials belonging to the foreign representation of the CC. It is precisely this character that the letter below has, written by Lenin on behalf of the deputy foreign representative of the CC to the editorial board of *Iskra*.

* The word "all" is crossed out in the manuscript. Ed.
** "C.O." is crossed out in ink by P. Lepeshinskii. Ed.
*** The last two words in the manuscript are corrected by P. Lepeshinskii to read "abuse of trust." Ed.
**** In the manuscript this paragraph is crossed out. Ed.
† In the manuscript the signature is supplemented in the hand of P. Lepeshinskii: "[By order of the Foreign] Representative of the C.C. I. Olin." Ed.